NcDeuce
04-13-2004, 10:27 AM
Iraqi clerics say coalition 'must pay' for crisis
U.S. general wants 10,000 more troops
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As Iraq's most powerful Shiite clerics warned the U.S.-led coalition that it "must pay" for the current crisis in the country, the head of U.S. Central Command asked the Pentagon for roughly 10,000 more soldiers.
In a statement issued Monday after a meeting with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the clerics and members of the country's religious authority also cautioned the coalition against doing battle in the holy city of Najaf, and warned against any attempt to kill al-Sadr.
"The current crisis in Iraq has risen to a level that is beyond any political groups, including the Governing Council, and it is now an issue that is between the religious authority and the coalition forces," the statement said.
"Those who have brought on this crisis must pay for what they have done."
Participating in the meeting was Mullah Mohammed Redha Ali Al-Sistani, the son of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani; Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayadh, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim, Grand Ayatollah Bashir Hussein al-Najafi, Mohammed Sayid Redha al-Sistani and Sayid Ali al-Sibzwari.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the recognized leader of the country's majority Shiite Muslims, is known to keep al-Sadr at arm's length. But the concerns voiced by the clerics Monday reflected a desire to avoid the kind of conflict in Najaf that was recently seen in Fallujah, where several U.S. troops and many more Iraqis died in recent fighting.
Al-Sadr is currently holed up in a mosque in Najaf, where his militia, the Mehdi Army, patrolled the streets Monday after negotiating to allow local police back into three of their stations. An al-Sadr deputy said the militia would allow the police to return only if U.S. forces left the area.
The battle with al-Sadr's forces began earlier this month, after the coalition shut down his newspaper, Al Hawza, for allegedly inciting violence and then arrested an aide on charges of complicity in the slaying last year of another Shiite cleric.
An Iraqi judge has also issued a warrant for al-Sadr's arrest in connection with the killing.
A top aide of al-Sadr, Sheikh Hazem al-Araji, was detained and questioned by U.S. forces and then released Tuesday, according to a U.S. Army officer.
"After questioning, we determined that he is not part of the violence and appears to have been a force for promoting discussion," 1st Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey said.
Al-Araji was on a list of al-Sadr associates wanted for questioning by the U.S. military.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Monday the U.S. forces' mission is "to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr," the phrase coalition military leaders use to refer to their missions against other so-called "high level targets."
Najaf, Kufa and neighboring Karbala are the only cities remaining under the Mehdi Army's control since U.S. forces put down al-Sadr-inspired rebellions in other cities over the weekend.
U.S. helicopter crash reported
A U.S. helicopter was seen by an Associated Press reporter burning on the ground outside Fallujah on Tuesday, and witnesses said it was hit by a rocket from the ground. There was no immediate word on casualties.
The helicopter was in flames on the ground 12 miles east of Fallujah near the village of Zawbaa, according to the AP.
An insurgent uprising stretching from Najaf in south-central Iraq to Tikrit, north of Baghdad, is making this month the deadliest one since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. With April not yet half over, at least 75 U.S. troops have been killed in hostile action; 26 of them died in fighting over the weekend.
For the insurgents, the toll is higher, according to the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, said Monday he has asked the Pentagon for the equivalent of at least two combat brigades, roughly 10,000 troops, to handle the insurgents in Iraq.
"What I've asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability," Abizaid said at a news conference in Baghdad. "That's probably about two brigades worth of combat power, if not more."
Pentagon sources said that for three months that need will be filled by elements of the 1st Armored Division that had been scheduled to return home.
Counting the missing
Continuing the apparent insurgent trend in Iraq to kidnap and hold foreign hostages, the Arab-language television news channel Al-Jazeera on Tuesday aired video of what it said were four Italians who had been kidnapped.
The video showed armed men surrounding four men, who were seated and appeared to be holding their passports.
In another kidnapping, eight employees of a Russian electric power consortium in Iraq were released Tuesday, according to the company's executive director, Alexander Rybinsky. Five of the workers were Ukrainian nationals. The other three were Russian. They were all said to be in good condition.
Rybinsky said a group of masked armed men stormed into a company building in Baghdad on Monday, overpowering armed guards, taking nine employees hostage and then driving them away. One employee was later released. (Full story)
On Monday, seven Chinese men also were freed by their captors.
A group of masked men delivered the Chinese kidnap victims Monday to a group of Muslim clerics at a mosque in Baghdad.
Two Arab men working for aid agencies are also being held by militants, one a Syrian-born Canadian and the other a resident of Jerusalem. (Iraq hostage crisis intensifies)
There still was no word Tuesday about the fate of three kidnapped Japanese civilians who militants had vowed Saturday to burn alive if Japan did not pull its forces out of Iraq by Sunday.
The deadline has also passed for U.S. troops to withdraw from Fallujah, as militants holding U.S. truck driver Thomas Hamill demanded, threatening to kill him if their demand is not met.
Hamill -- a contractor for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root -- was taken captive after an ambush on a fuel convoy Friday near Baghdad International Airport.
Six other civilian KBR contractors -- some of them Americans -- are unaccounted for after being ambushed over the weekend, according to the Pentagon. Two U.S. troops are also missing, the U.S. military said.
Also, three Czech Television journalists had not been heard from, a spokesman for the station said.
Other developments
Iraqi civilians continue to stream out of Fallujah. U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said that the situation in the town of 200,000 was calmer than it had been, but remained tense. After he spoke, firefights broke out Monday night after five Marines were wounded. Marines moved on Fallujah after four U.S. civilian security contract workers were killed and mutilated March 31.
President Bush, speaking at a news conference at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said the United States must defend ordinary Iraqis against "gangs that were trying to take the law into their own hands." Bush will hold a news conference Tuesday evening at the White House to discuss the situation in Iraq.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040409/capt.sge.fwg05.090404141252.photo00.default-293x350.jpg
So an Air Force Pave Low and Army Apache have been downed in the past few days?
What makes me think Gen. Abizaid will receive more than two brigades?
U.S. general wants 10,000 more troops
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As Iraq's most powerful Shiite clerics warned the U.S.-led coalition that it "must pay" for the current crisis in the country, the head of U.S. Central Command asked the Pentagon for roughly 10,000 more soldiers.
In a statement issued Monday after a meeting with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the clerics and members of the country's religious authority also cautioned the coalition against doing battle in the holy city of Najaf, and warned against any attempt to kill al-Sadr.
"The current crisis in Iraq has risen to a level that is beyond any political groups, including the Governing Council, and it is now an issue that is between the religious authority and the coalition forces," the statement said.
"Those who have brought on this crisis must pay for what they have done."
Participating in the meeting was Mullah Mohammed Redha Ali Al-Sistani, the son of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani; Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayadh, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim, Grand Ayatollah Bashir Hussein al-Najafi, Mohammed Sayid Redha al-Sistani and Sayid Ali al-Sibzwari.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the recognized leader of the country's majority Shiite Muslims, is known to keep al-Sadr at arm's length. But the concerns voiced by the clerics Monday reflected a desire to avoid the kind of conflict in Najaf that was recently seen in Fallujah, where several U.S. troops and many more Iraqis died in recent fighting.
Al-Sadr is currently holed up in a mosque in Najaf, where his militia, the Mehdi Army, patrolled the streets Monday after negotiating to allow local police back into three of their stations. An al-Sadr deputy said the militia would allow the police to return only if U.S. forces left the area.
The battle with al-Sadr's forces began earlier this month, after the coalition shut down his newspaper, Al Hawza, for allegedly inciting violence and then arrested an aide on charges of complicity in the slaying last year of another Shiite cleric.
An Iraqi judge has also issued a warrant for al-Sadr's arrest in connection with the killing.
A top aide of al-Sadr, Sheikh Hazem al-Araji, was detained and questioned by U.S. forces and then released Tuesday, according to a U.S. Army officer.
"After questioning, we determined that he is not part of the violence and appears to have been a force for promoting discussion," 1st Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey said.
Al-Araji was on a list of al-Sadr associates wanted for questioning by the U.S. military.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Monday the U.S. forces' mission is "to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr," the phrase coalition military leaders use to refer to their missions against other so-called "high level targets."
Najaf, Kufa and neighboring Karbala are the only cities remaining under the Mehdi Army's control since U.S. forces put down al-Sadr-inspired rebellions in other cities over the weekend.
U.S. helicopter crash reported
A U.S. helicopter was seen by an Associated Press reporter burning on the ground outside Fallujah on Tuesday, and witnesses said it was hit by a rocket from the ground. There was no immediate word on casualties.
The helicopter was in flames on the ground 12 miles east of Fallujah near the village of Zawbaa, according to the AP.
An insurgent uprising stretching from Najaf in south-central Iraq to Tikrit, north of Baghdad, is making this month the deadliest one since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. With April not yet half over, at least 75 U.S. troops have been killed in hostile action; 26 of them died in fighting over the weekend.
For the insurgents, the toll is higher, according to the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, said Monday he has asked the Pentagon for the equivalent of at least two combat brigades, roughly 10,000 troops, to handle the insurgents in Iraq.
"What I've asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability," Abizaid said at a news conference in Baghdad. "That's probably about two brigades worth of combat power, if not more."
Pentagon sources said that for three months that need will be filled by elements of the 1st Armored Division that had been scheduled to return home.
Counting the missing
Continuing the apparent insurgent trend in Iraq to kidnap and hold foreign hostages, the Arab-language television news channel Al-Jazeera on Tuesday aired video of what it said were four Italians who had been kidnapped.
The video showed armed men surrounding four men, who were seated and appeared to be holding their passports.
In another kidnapping, eight employees of a Russian electric power consortium in Iraq were released Tuesday, according to the company's executive director, Alexander Rybinsky. Five of the workers were Ukrainian nationals. The other three were Russian. They were all said to be in good condition.
Rybinsky said a group of masked armed men stormed into a company building in Baghdad on Monday, overpowering armed guards, taking nine employees hostage and then driving them away. One employee was later released. (Full story)
On Monday, seven Chinese men also were freed by their captors.
A group of masked men delivered the Chinese kidnap victims Monday to a group of Muslim clerics at a mosque in Baghdad.
Two Arab men working for aid agencies are also being held by militants, one a Syrian-born Canadian and the other a resident of Jerusalem. (Iraq hostage crisis intensifies)
There still was no word Tuesday about the fate of three kidnapped Japanese civilians who militants had vowed Saturday to burn alive if Japan did not pull its forces out of Iraq by Sunday.
The deadline has also passed for U.S. troops to withdraw from Fallujah, as militants holding U.S. truck driver Thomas Hamill demanded, threatening to kill him if their demand is not met.
Hamill -- a contractor for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root -- was taken captive after an ambush on a fuel convoy Friday near Baghdad International Airport.
Six other civilian KBR contractors -- some of them Americans -- are unaccounted for after being ambushed over the weekend, according to the Pentagon. Two U.S. troops are also missing, the U.S. military said.
Also, three Czech Television journalists had not been heard from, a spokesman for the station said.
Other developments
Iraqi civilians continue to stream out of Fallujah. U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said that the situation in the town of 200,000 was calmer than it had been, but remained tense. After he spoke, firefights broke out Monday night after five Marines were wounded. Marines moved on Fallujah after four U.S. civilian security contract workers were killed and mutilated March 31.
President Bush, speaking at a news conference at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said the United States must defend ordinary Iraqis against "gangs that were trying to take the law into their own hands." Bush will hold a news conference Tuesday evening at the White House to discuss the situation in Iraq.
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20040409/capt.sge.fwg05.090404141252.photo00.default-293x350.jpg
So an Air Force Pave Low and Army Apache have been downed in the past few days?
What makes me think Gen. Abizaid will receive more than two brigades?